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Circular. May 22, 1917. 

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, 
!^,5, BUREAU OF EDUCATION. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR THE CONDUCT OF EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS 
DURING THE CONTINUANCE OF THE WAR, TO THE END THAT 
THEIR EDUCATIONAL EFFICIENCY MAY NOT BE LOWERED, AND 
THAT THEY MAY RENDER THE LARGEST AMOUNT OF SERVICE 
BOTH FOR THE PRESENT AND FOR THE FUTURE. 



LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL. 



Department of the Interior, 

Bureau of Education, 
Washington, May 22, 1917. 

Sir: Many officers and teachers of all grades and kinds of schools 
have appealed to the Commissioner of Education for advice as to 
what policy should be pursued by the schools during the war. It is, 
I believe, the desire of those responsible for the policies of -the 
schools that they be made to serve the country most effectively in its 
time of need, and that in doing so they shall not fail in their great 
task of preparing for citizenship and for service to society, State, 
and Nation in the future. After careful consideration and consulta- 
tion with educators in different parts of the country I have pre- 
pared the brief statement transmitted herewith for publication. 
This statement embodies, I believe, the consensus of opinion of 
many who are most directly responsible for the schools and of others 
who have given this subject most consideration, and it is at the 
same time fully in harmony with the policy of the administration 
at Washington and of all who carry the burdens of responsibility 
for the conduct of the war and of the defense of the country. It is 
very desirable that some such statement be made at this time, to the 
end that there may be a clear understanding of conditions and 
needs and a reasonable amount of concerted action. 

Respectfully submitted. 

P. P. Claxton, 

Commissioner. 

The Secretary of the Interior. 

100182°— 17 



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SUGGESTIONS BY THE COMMISSIONER OF 
EDUCATION. 



The United States has entered into the war to the end that its own 
democracy shall be safeguarded and that government of the people, 
by the people, and for the people may prevail over all the world. 
But democracy requires for success universal knowledge, intelli- 
gence, and virtue of high degree, and must protect itself from weak- 
ness and corruption from within no less than from forceful in- 
vasion from without. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance 
that during the continuance of the war and through the years im- 
mediately following there shall be no lowering in the efficiency of 
our systems of education. Schools and other agencies of education 
must be maintained at whatever necessary cost and against all hurt- 
ful interference with their regular work except as may be necessary 
for the national defense, which is of course our immediate task and 
must be kept constantly in mind and have right of way everywhere 
and at all times. From the beginning of our participation in the 
war we should avoid the mistakes which some other countries have 
made to their hurt and which they are now trying to correct. 

If the war should be long and severe, there will be great need in 
its later days for many young men and women of scientific knowl- 
edge, training, and skill; and it may then be much more difficult 
than it is now to support our schools, to spare our children and 
youth from other service and to permit them to attend school. 
Therefore no school should close its doors now or shorten its term 
unnecessarily. All young men and women in college should remain 
and use their time to the very best advantage, except such as may 
find it necessary to leave for immediate profitable employment in 
some productive occupation or for the acceptance of some position 
in some branch of the military service, which position can not be 
so Avell filled by anyone else. All ch-ildren in the elementary schools 
and as nearly as possible all high-school pupils should remain in 
school through the entire session. 

When the war is over, whether within a few months or after 
many years, there will be such demands upon this country for men 
and women of scientific knowledge, technical skill, and general cul-i 
lure as have never before come to any country. The world must be 

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D. jyt D. 

JUN 'l3 1917 



rebuilt. This country must play a far more important part than it 
has in the past in agriculture, manufacturing and commerce, and 
also in the things of cultural life — art, literature, music, scientific 
discovery. 

Russia and China are awakening to new life and are on the eve of 
great industrial development. They will ask of us steel, engines, and 
cars for railroads, agricultural implements, and machinery for in- 
dustrial plants. They will also ask for men to install these and to 
direct much of their development in every line. England, France, 
Italy, and the central Empires have thrown into battle a very large 
per cent of their educated and trained men, including most of the 
young professors and instructors in their universities, colleges, gym- 
nasien, lycees, and public schools. Their colleges and universities 
are almost empt}^ The young men who would under normal con- 
ditions be receiving the education and training necessary to pre- 
pare them for leadership in the future development of these coun- 
tries are fighting and dying in the trenches. All these countries 
must needs go through a long period of reconstruction, industrially 
and in many other respects. Our own trained men and women 
should be able and ready to render every possible assistance. It 
should be remembered that the number of students in our universities, 
colleges, normal schools, and technical schools is very small as com- 
pared with the total number of persons of producing age — little more 
than one-half of 1 per cent. The majority of these students are 
young men and women who are becoming more mature and fit for 
service. The older of the 60,000,000 men and women of producing 
age are growing more unfit and are passing beyond the age of serv- 
ice. It should also be remembered that the more mature the young 
men who volunteer for service in the Army the more valuable their 
services will be. The age of selective draft is from 21 to 30. 

Therefore a right conception of patriotism should induce all stu- 
dents who can not render some immediate service of great value to 
remain in college, concentrate their energies on their college work, 
and thus be all the more ready and fit when their services may be 
needed either for war or for the important work of reconstruction 
and development in our own and other countries when the war shall 
have ended. 

Fortunately it is possible for all schools to continue for the present 
at least in their full educational efficiency and with little or no dimi- 
nution in their attendance, and at the same time contribute much 
to the national defense. 

For the purpose of promoting the ends herein set forth the fol- 
lowing suggestions are offered for an educational program during 
the war: 



GENERAL. 

All schools of whatever grade should remain open with their 
full quota of officers and teachers. The salaries of teachers should 
not be lowered in this time of unusual high cost of living. When 
possible, salaries should be increased in proportion to the services 
rendered. Since the people will be taxed heavily by the Federal 
Government for the payment of the expenses of the war, teachers 
should be willing to continue to do their work, and do it as well as 
they can, as a patriotic service even if their salaries can not now be 
increased. All equipment necessary for the best use of the time 
of teachers and students should be provided, as sliould all necessary 
increase of room, but costly building should not be undertaken now 
while the prices of building material are excessively high and w^hile 
there are urgent and unfilled demands for labor in industries per- 
taining directly and immediately to the national defense. Schools 
should be continued in full efficiency, but in most instances costly 
building may well be postponed. 

During school hours and out of school, on mornings, afternoons, 
Saturdays, and during vacation all older children and youth should 
be encouraged and directed to do as much useful productive work 
as they can without interfering with their more important school 
duties. This productive work should be so directed as to give it the 
highest possible value, both economically and educationally. For 
children and youth in schools of all grades there will be need of 
more effective moral training, and provision should be made for 
this. While the war for the safety of democracy is in progress 
and when it is over there will ])e greater need for effective machinery 
for the promotion of intelligent discussion of the principles of 
democracy and all that pertains to the public welfare of local com- 
munities, counties, States, and the Nation. To this end every school- 
house should be made a community center and civic forum with fre- 
quent meetings for the discussion of matters of public interast and 
for social intercourse. The Bureau of Education will give advice 
in regard to this upon request, 

I. ELE3IENTARY SCHOOLS. 

Except in case of great need, attendance laws should be enforced 
as usual. Parents should be encouraged to make all possible efforts 
to keep their children in school and should have public or private 
help when they can not do so without it. Many young children 
will lack the home care given them in times of peace, and there 
will be need of many more kindergartens and Montessori schools 
than we now have. Much might be gained by keeping the ele- 
mentary schools open all the year with such changes iii study and 
daily regimen as may be necessary to adapt the schools to the 



5 

changes of the season. A school year of four terms of 12 weeks 
each is suggested. Home gardening and other useful occupations 
should be encouraged and when possible should be directed by 
the school. In country and village schools boys and girls should 
be encouraged to join corn clubs, canning clubs, poultry clubs, and 
other similar clubs for the production and conservation of foods. 
These clubs should be directed by teachers with the help of farm- 
demonstration agents and other employees of agricultural colleges 
and departments of agriculture of States and the Federal Gov- 
ernment. In the South boys and girls should be encouraged to 
grow peas, peanuts, sweet potatoes, beets, turnips, onions, and other 
root and bulb crops. In city schools wholesome school lunches 
should be provided at cost and should be given without price when 
necessary. Girls in the higher grades should be directed in mak- 
ing clothing for smaller children who will need the help. Teachers 
should consult local charity associations as to what assistance can 
be given them through the schools. 

II. HIGH SCHOOLS. 

The attendance in the high schools should be increased, and more 
boys and girls should be induced to remain until their course is 
completed. A school year of four terms of 12 Aveeks each is rec- 
ommended for the high schools, as for the elementary schools. In 
the high schools adopting this plan arrangements should be made 
for half-time attendance, according to the Fitchburg, Cincinnati^ 
and Spartanburg, S. C, plans, for as large a proportion of pupils 
as possible. In all high schools more attention should be given 
to chemistry, physics, biology, and to industrial, social, and civic 
subjects. Where possible, high schools should remain open this 
summer and. give intensive work in the sciences, in manual train- 
ing, domestic science and arts, and in trades and industries. Many 
boys might thus be fitted for engineering and agricultural courses 
in college a year earlier than they otherwise would be, and girls 
might be fitted to enter college a year earlier for courses in home 
economics. All laboratories and manual-training shops in high 
schools should be run at their full capacity. In many of the shops 
work should be done which will have immediate value for the 
national defense. The Bureau of Education, the Department of 
War, or the National Council of Defense can give information in 
regard to what can be done. 

In all high schools in which domestic science (sewing, cooking, 
sanitation, etc.) is taught, large units of time should be given in the 
summer and fall to sewing for the Red Cross and for local charities. 
There will be much suffering next winter in all our larger cities. 
Charity associations and relief societies will need all the help they 



can get. Hundreds of thousands of garments should be made in the 
public and private high schools during the summer and fall. Local 
chapters of the Red Cross can give information as to its needs. 
Classes for grown-up women should be formed in which practical 
instruction can be given largely by lecture and demonstration in the 
conservation and economic use of food. These classes should meet 
at such times as may be most convenient for the women, and all 
women who have to do with housekeeping or home making should 
be encouraged to attend them. In country and village high schools 
in which agriculture and domestic science are taught, boys and girls 
should be encouraged to undertake home projects under the direction 
of their teachers, after the Massachusetts plan, and classes meeting 
once a week or oftener should be formed for the women of the com- 
munity for instruction in the preservation of foods, sanitation, and 
economic housekeeping. 

III. CONTINUATION SCHOOLS AND EVENING SCHOOLS. 

For all boys and girls who can not attend the day sessions of the 
high schools, continuation classes should be formed, to meet at such 
times as may be arranged during working hours or in the evening. 
All cities should maintain evening schools for adult men and women. 
In cities having considerable numbers of immigrants, evening schools 
should be maintained for them with classes in English, in civics, and 
such other subjects as will be helpful to these foreigners in under- 
standing our industrial, social, civic, and political life. For instruc- 
tion in trades and industries and for continuation schools, the funds 
provided by the Fedei-al vocational educational law, the so-called 
Smith-Hughes Act, may be used. 

IV. NORMAL SCHOOLS. 

In few States is the supply of broadly educated and well-trained 
teachers equal to the demand. In some States the normal schools 
do not yet prepare half enough teachers to fill the vacancies. The 
need for better schools to meet the new demands for a higher level 
of average intelligence, scientific knowledge, and industrial skill, 
which will come with the reestablishment of peace, makes more 
urgent the need for more and better trained teachers. Every dollar 
expended for education and every day of every child in school must 
be made to produce the fullest possible returns. The normal schools 
should double their energies and use all their funds in the most 
economic way for the work of preparing teachers. Appropriations 
for the support of normal schools should be largely increased, as 
f^hould also the attendance of men and women preparing for service 
as teachers. Most of these schools now have summer sessions and 
adapt their work to the needs and convenience of their students, and 



especially of teachers already in the service who wish to use their 
vacations in further preparation. All normal schools that do not do 
this now should at once make arrangements to do it. Such normal 
schools as have well-equipped departments of domestic science or 
home economics should this summer offer special courses for teachers 
and other women who are willing to form classes in domestic science 
and arts at the rural and village schools for the women of the com- 
munities in which the schools are located. 

V. COLLEGES, UNIVERSITIES, AND TECHNICAL SCHOOLS. 

It is to be expected that many of the older and upper class men 
in colleges, universities, and technical schools will volunteer for some 
branch of the militarj^ service, but all young men below the age of 
liability to selective draft and those not recommended for special 
service should be urged to remain and take full advantage of the 
(opportunities offered by the colleges, universities, and technical 
schools, to the end that they may be able to render the most effective 
service in the later years of the war and the times of need that will 
follow. Practically all women students should remain, and all boys 
and girls graduating from high schools should be urged to enter 
college, technical school, or normal school. The total number of 
students in these schools should be increased rather than diminished. 
All students should be made to understand that it is their duty to 
give to their country and to the world the best and fullest possible 
measure of service, and that both will need more than tbey will get 
of that high type of service which onl}' men and women of the best 
education and training can give. Patriotism and the desire to serve 
humanity may require of these young men and women the exercise 
of that very high type of self-restraint that will keep them to their 
tasks of preparation until the time comes when they can render 
service which can not be rendered by others. 

All institutions of higher learning should reduce the cost of living 
and all other expenses to the lowest possible figure so that the fewest 
]3ossible number may be excluded because of the cost of attendance. 
The instructors of the institutions themselves, societies, and individ- 
uals should lend to worth}'' students at low rates of interest and on 
as long terms as may be necessary funds needed to keep them in 
college until graduation. To do so may prove to be a most effective 
means of patriotic service. Calendars of colleges, universities, and 
technical schools should be so modified as to enable them to use their 
plants most fully and to meet most effectively the needs of their 
students. It is probable that for many the school year of four 
quarters of 12 weeks each will prove most useful. For others, sum- 
mer courses with special emphasis on engineering and other technical 
and professional courses may be best. Quite certainl}', all these in- 



LltSKHKY Ul- ^UNUKbbb 



^ 020 914 322 7C 

stitutions should give every possible opportunity for intensive in- 
struction in these subjects and in chemistry, physics, biology, and 
their practical, productive applications. Full use should be made of 
all laboratories and shops, whether for teaching and demonstration 
or for research. In many of them much productive v^ork might be 
done for the immediate service of the country. The Departments of 
War and of the Navy, the American Red Cross, the National Council 
of Defense; and the Bureau of Education will be able to make sug- 
gestions in regard to this from time to time. In their summer 
quarters or summer schools all of these institutions that have de- 
partments or schools of home economics should give special, intensive 
courses for teachers and other women who are willing to organize, 
next fall and winter, classes of women who are housekeepers and 
home makers in country, tillage, -and city, and instruct them in tlie 
conservation and economic use of foods and in the most practical 
principles and methods of home economics. 

In agricultural colleges special intensive courses should be given to 
prepare teachers, directors, and supervisors of agriculture and prac- 
tical farm superintendents. It should be remembered that the 
scientific knowledge and the supervising and directing skill of these 
men and their ability to increase the productive capacity of thousands 
of men of less knowledge and sldll are far more valuable than the 
work they can do as farm hands. The total number of agricultural 
students in all colleges is only a fraction more than one-tenth of I per 
cent of the total number of persons engaged in agriculture, or aboi>. 
13 in 10,000 — not enough to affect materially the agricultural produc- 
tion of the country by their labor, but enough to affect it immensely 
by their directive power when their college courses have been finished. 
All State universities and colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts, 
and all other institutions that do extension work, should prepare 
themselves to render still more effective service in this direction. 
There will be need for it. No college, imiversity, or technical school 
that can avoid it should permit its faculty or student body to be 
scattered or its energy to be dissipated. All should redouble their 
energies and. concentrate them on those things that will be of most 
service during the progress of the war and which will prepare their 
students for the most effective service of the country and of the world 
when the war is over. 

The desire to render immediate service is praiseworthy, and the 
spirit which prompts it should be fostered, but it is effective service 
that finally counts. Schools and school officers, teachers, and stu- 
dents should ever keep this goal of effective service in mind. 



WASHINGTON : GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1917 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



020 914 322 7 



